how would you rate ubuntu 8.10 ?

[zhangm Supervisor]

People say Windows updates can be hairy, but they've never experienced the glory of n.xx to (n+1).xx updates with Ubuntu.

The transition from Gutsy to Hardy completely messed up my touchpad settings to the point where the mouse did not respond to human input, but instead went around clicking things on its own. I eventually found the solution online.

Going from Hardy to Intrepid resulted some pretty severe video card issues, and there doesn't seem to be a consistent solution available at this time, so at some point, I'm going to reinstall from scratch.

[PricklyPoo]

As for the Nexuiz problem....It is indeed an isuue with ATI drivers...So I have to wait until they are fixed. :/

[Fourjays Veteran]

People say Windows updates can be hairy, but they've never experienced the glory of n.xx to (n+1).xx updates with Ubuntu.

+1 - I remember when I upgraded once. Myself, along with others dual-booting with SATA drives on a certain series of Intel chipsets (ICH4, I think) were basically given a choice of 5 minute boot times with a poor fix or no Linux boot. :/ Alongside a very unhelpful community at Ubuntu (who's only advice was not to dual-boot :rolleyes: ), it was why I gave up on Linux back then.

It seems the general advice I read now is not to upgrade, but to just format (except /home) and install again...

[1759]

It works very well on my new Aspire One, dual booting with XP SP3, and everything I've tried works, including suspend, and I would give it a 9/10.

However, I find it less than great on my Toshiba, but I've given up on reliable ATI video drivers. When it works, it works fine, but suspend doesn't work (it did with 7.10 though), and it hangs when restarting. Other than that, it's fine. 8/10 for Ubuntu, 4/10 for the ATI drivers.

[xp1ode]

I have to say that this release is on par with 8.04 with MY setup. Is pretty speedy, all my hardware works and i havent had any real problems i usually can't solve by myself (with the help of google of course). With every release of Ubuntu i like it just a bit more, i gave Fedora 10 a try on my main machine as well as on my HTPC machine, and Ubuntu worked great on both, Fedora only worked ok on my main machine so that is the reason i stick with ubuntu mostly. Unetbootin is a great app by the way, i dont have to keep burning cds anymore, now i just have a 4gb flash drive and i everytime i feel like trying a new distro i just slap it on the drive and away i go.

So in conclusion, i say i would give 8.10 a 9/10 just like 8.04. Not a 10 because i still think that Canonical can do way better when it comes to default themes.

For those that just have problems with hardware, don't give up keep trying and keep reading forums and solutions i never stop trying to find answers. Linux is a great platform.

[fix-this!]

well i guess linux just doesn't like my laptop then. :cry:

[Syanide]

Aaaaaa I'm so excited, I ran out of CD's so I need to pick some up tomorrow, but it's the first time I'll be installing one actually.

I gave my USB to a friend, so I had to delete my live USB I was using for some time now.

Oh and it's the first time I'll be installing Linux, I've only used a few live distros! I can't wait, I've liked it so far (Y)

[dmd3x]

Out of the box it worked great, but once I tried to slim it down and customize, it broke into a million pieces. (exaggerating, lol but that is how I feel).

Then again, working right out of the box distros aren't really right for me because I always do heavy customization...

[markwolfe Veteran]

Out of the box it worked great, but once I tried to slim it down and customize, it broke into a million pieces. (exaggerating, lol but that is how I feel).

Then again, working right out of the box distros aren't really right for me because I always do heavy customization...

I think you touched on one of the things I am not happy about with Ubuntu (though the positives greatly outweigh the negatives to me). If you install Ubuntu, and want to remove "Evolution", the email client, it seems to drag half of Gnome with it.

This is because of how Ubuntu set up their meta packages. Their "desktop" package is what is technically installed, and it includes many apps, including Evolution. While it makes it easy to install a default desktop for most people, if you try to remove the Evolution part, it isn't set up to remove that alone. It is part of a larger package.

Now, you can remove it and all associated packages, and just do a sudo apt-get install for the list of individual packages that you really want to keep. And keeping these as individuals makes for a more modular install for you, the end user. And I think that this is one of the things I am excited about with Neowin's Shift Linux - they are not going to metapackage things this way. Yes, it makes it easy for some people to install "desktop" and get the full collection. But it makes customizing your Linux to fit you a little more work than it ought to be. :yes:

[Syanide]

I seriously don't know why the hell I never tried it (or any other Linux distro) for real before. I mean internet (or lack of one) was an issue, so it was hard for me to obtain copies, but man I love this.

No hardware problems where I had some in Windows:

The integrated soundcard on my motherboard is sh*tty, I always had issues in Windows - works like charm in Ubuntu.

Wireless recognized, which I had some fears about. It is actually slower which is giving me some problems, but luckily it's a known (and solved) issue.

And the best thing of all - I have the crappiest bluetooth usb adapter ever, it won't work in XP unless you install BlueSolei software, which I hate, and it won't work in Vista at all. It was the main reason I switched from Vista back to XP. Worked without a problem in Ubuntu.

I'm in love.

I feel like I've missed out on so much (I mean it's a general problem I have in life :D), because I was internet-less for a longer period of time. The first Linux I wanted to try was Red Hat 6.0 and the CD I got was scratched :angry:. That was a looong time ago. I only used Knoppix every now and then after that, but I bought a newer computer, it didn't work well (I got a CD maybe three years ago). But this is awesome.

This is the first day I'm using it, though... I hope it stays this cool. And I have a bunch of questions aaaa.

Edited December 26, 2008 by Symod

[I am Reid]

With this being the first time I actually installed linux on my computer, ubuntu is not making much of an impression. Its the little things that are annoying the **** out of me, for example, the auto snap windows to borders it does is about to make my head explode, and I have no clue how to disable it.

[fix-this!]

ill be installing linux soon enough again, it's bugging me to no end. im telling you i just can't stay away no matter how hard i try.

but i know ill hold myself back until the next build of ubuntu. my next step is to test windows 7.

[markwolfe Veteran]

With this being the first time I actually installed linux on my computer, ubuntu is not making much of an impression. Its the little things that are annoying the **** out of me, for example, the auto snap windows to borders it does is about to make my head explode, and I have no clue how to disable it.

Ok, so largely, it works fine, but the window snap causes brain swelling? :unsure:

I don't use Gnome/Compiz. I hate the effects, but my flux snaps windows if within just like 3 pixels, and I find it helpful in window placement.

From a quick google, it seems that for Compiz, you are looking for the Wobbly Windows plugin called "Snap Inverted". From what I read, you just turn it off and the snapping stops.

If this was the most serious issue you have, then things must be going well for you. ;)

[xp1ode]

markjensen is correct, is pretty easy to disable it. I use to hate it before, when i first installed hardy, but i actually got use to it, i keeps my desktop kind of clean when i need to open many windows. Just drag the window to the edges and it snaps, pretty simple and useful if you ask me.

[tmahmood]

Ubuntu works great for me, as always! :)

I'm running 8.10 64bit version on my core2duo machine and its flawless! everything just works!! It very fast and stable. It also worked perfectly on my other AMD machine, which now runs ArchLinux. I upgraded through 7.10 > 8.04 > 8.10 on that machine and nothing broke. Everything was great and performance was very smooth. heh, maybe I'm lucky :p

10/10

[hadouken]

Works pretty well for me on a Dell Studio 1537 laptop. Out of the box I was surprised to see that everything worked as it should, bluetooth, wireless, graphics all working fine with two propietary drivers found and installed. I soon discovered that the wl.ko driver for my Broadcom (Dell branded) wireless controller will cause a kernel panic under certain circumstances and suffers from a lot of dropouts, but Broadcom are very sucky for linux support.

I had some trouble building ndiswrapper from source as well, trouble that apparently doesn't affect 8.04 :( . I managed to fix it by editing one of the .C files though, compiled OK then couldn't load the Windows driver because of missing symbols etc.

Boot times are a bit disappointing and GNOME feels sluggish as a lot of people have already said. Using beryl was pretty horrible too, even scrolling Firefox was jittery and slow.

Not a bad release but still needs a lot of fixing, tweaking and could use a little more UI polish.

[Tankerdog]

I give it a 7. It's OK...but it's buggy. Sierra wireless hooked up effortlessly so thats a big plus!!!!

Too much trouble with restricted drivers. Internet's a bit slow due to IPv6 still loading by default. The restrictions on Nvidia Graphics make laptops run way too hot.....thus.....way too slow. I like some of the KDE apps but not all of them. You can't use any of them unless you go for the whole enchilada now.

I'm sure they will work it out. I just expected more from Canonical. Even Shuttleworth knows whats wrong here but still he insists on going off on a jack-a-loupe chase before fixing this one. I think Canonical needs to stop and seriously focus on what they want to accomplish at this point. So far they don't have one release that's very robust. They do have several that work well with some things; but not a single one that works well overall. This oversight will allow Microsoft an opportunity to bury 'em at some point in the near future.

They'll be shot down on the runway before they even get airborne.

[Syanide]

Errrgh, after my beginner's enthusiasm I'm slowly starting to get annoyed.

Don't get me wrong, I still think it's really really cool. The installation was so easy, nothing on Windows can come close (I mean come on, I pop the live CD in, play sudoku and install an OS in the meantime lol).

Still, the BIGGEST problem I have is wireless internet... It's not just slow, like I said in the previous post, it's incredibly fu**king-makes-me-wanna-break-my-computer slow. I've heard people complaining they get 50-100 KB when they should be getting a few MBs downloads, the problem I use slow internet by default (128/128 Kbps), so it's almost unbearable. It's so slow it took me a few minutes to open google, and it didn't even load the logo. Nothing besides that could even open.

Now I'm actually quite used to using computers with no internet connection, but the thing is Linux today in general seems to be relying on it for applications, and basically anything.

I tried different solutions to fix the wireless problem (disabling IPv6, seting the max speed of WLAN to 54MB via terminal - this actually made things worse, and some other crap). And now comes catch-22: I thought about using ndiswrapper to install windows wireless drivers (thought it might help, even though it does recognize wireless right away), but I need internet to download it?!?!? It starts the download, reports an error, then tries something else and reports some sort of system error (not compliant with AMD64, nothing I tried seems to be).

Are any of the programs that are not installed by default accessible from the CD?

And it really ruins it for testing purposes, too... I can't play any mp3's, because I need codecs (which I need to download). I can't change my desktop effects, because I need new nvidia drivers (which it also starts downloading, plus it starts downloading the latest version; my GeForce 7300GT isn't supported in ForceWare for quite some time now).

Blah. I'm thinking about downloading Mint since at least it has a lot of restricted software (codecs, drivers) installed by default, and I think even ndiswrapper is included. And maybe try a non Ubuntu distro like Fedora to see if there's anything different.

I don't want to give up, I was so happy to be trying it, it's such a shame, especially when it basically depends on internet... I'll try a few more things, but seems to me I'll be waiting for 9.04 to see if they payed more attention (a lot of forum posts regarding it on ubuntu.com, only a few of them solved).

[fix-this!]

im playing with it again but it still to me is incredibly slower than vista and much slower than 7 beta. :huh:

[Growled Member]

I loved Ubuntu until the first update hit and something broke. After that it was all downhill. I find Ubuntu very buggy compared to Opensuse.

[chrisj1968]

If you don't like Ubuntu for whatever reason, Fedora 10 is looking very, very good.

What about OpenSuse 11.1? That Distro is rock solid in it's tools

[sanctified Veteran]

If Ubuntu 8.10 is anything like Xubuntu 8.10 then its HELL! Worst Linux experience ever for me.

[fix-this!]

A lot of people are having issues with 8.10 so I've read. I'd go with mandriva but its too different for my tastes right now. I don't mind playing with ubuntu but not sure if ill keep it yet or not ?

[Syanide]

I've spent some more time dealing with the wireless issue. Gonna give it an hour max today. And then I'm over with it, I'm downloading Sabayon.

[tmahmood]

it starts downloading the latest version; my GeForce 7300GT isn't supported in ForceWare for quite some time now).

Hey, I have a 7300GT too, it works fine with 173.xx drivers.